Best Shot Monday

no words are really necessary here. (except that it was taken by Dave, yay!)

... at Krispy Kreme, one of our new family traditions (b-fast at KK at Christmastime). it's fairly obvious that Lucy thought it was scrumdiddlyumptious!

mmm, Christmas Eve. will there be other Best Shot Mondays out there?

words of the season

The holiday carols have been playing in heavy rotation around our house this month. These are the words that really speak to me this year:

from Away in a Manger:

Be near me, Lord Jesus,

I ask Thee to stay

Close by me forever

And love me I pray

Bless all the dear children

In Thy tender care

And take us to heaven

To live with Thee there

I really appreciate the simplicity of these requests: be near me, be close by me, love me. The basic needs of a human are met in Jesus. O Jesus, thank you for being what we need.

and from O Little Town of Bethlehem:

O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!

I'm so glad He did and is! What a great ending to a great song!

Merry Christmas!

images of Christmastime at our house

we love this ornament of Lucy from The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe... since we named our daughter after this very character! we don't actually put this ornament on our tree; it is displayed all year long.

our little tree


for a 7-year teaching veteran (that's a long time in teacher-years!), no Christmas would be complete without a plethora of knick-knacks adorning the house. several of them are pictured here. i have a large box in which all of these gifts from students go, and it's fun to bring them out each winter.



our coat hooks with dave's santa hat mixed in. this is not staged.






this year i made a special advent calendar of love for my husband. this is in our bathroom.

our little dancing man goes on the front door each year. you pull the string and it moves around giddily. we add the voice saying, "It's Christmassssssssss!"





i love countdown calendars and putting extra ornaments everywhere.



















i am grateful for each and every social opportunity this month. it's been full but not hectic; fun and completely delightful.

one of the things we love most about the Christmas season is receiving cards & photos from friends & family. this is especially significant to us this year, as we are still "new in town" and none of our older friends & family are close by. every day we anticipate the arrival of our postman to see what goods he's placed in our box.

last year, at this time, we didn't have an address. we knew your Christmas card must have had a hard time finding us. behold! this year we do have an address, and a mailbox too! this is what it looks like. it even has a deer (or is that a reindeer?) on it.

don't let Bambi down. send your Christmas card to us today! we'd love to know how you're doing.

the best ornament ever

(here's vince, the guy who first opened the steve carell ornament. he didn't know who he was. another person ended up "stealing" it from vince.)

dave and i happily went to a Christmas party with the "young adults" group at our church tonight. everyone was instructed to bring a wrapped ornament of their choosing for the gift exchange. we've been informed that this gets kinda wacky, so we'd better bring something memorable. this is what i decided to bring:

and to put its size in perspective for you:

i just think there's nothin' funnier than steve carell! where better than to put a framed picture of him on your Christmas tree? my criteria for choosing this ornament was simple: would i like to receive this ornament? :)

he became the running joke of the evening, and even made an appearance in the group shot.

Christmas photo - runner up

This is the runner-up family Christmas photo for us this year... it was too cute not to show it to you here.